Brazil

277

Total numberof Innovations

?

The sum of different institutional designs
for citizen participation in each country. Each institutional design is
counted only once in each country, no matter how much replicated and
spread it is. For example, each country has no more than one type of
participatory budget (face-to-face, online and multi-channel) counted
as a case, no matter how many times and in how many cities it took place
over the years. However, if a given institutional design faces substantial
variation as it
has been replicated or if it has changed substantially over time it may be
counted as a new innovation. The database comprises as many cases as our
team has been
able to find in each country until reaching a stage of data exhaustion.

35,882

Total number of Cases

?

The sum of all individual occurrences of each innovation in a given country, i.e. it indicates how many times each
institutional design has been implemented or carried out.

111,826,481

Total volumeof Participation

?

The sum of all individual participants in
all cases. In cases of collegiate bodies of permanent or sporadic
character, where participants or representatives regularly intervene
and/or are the same individual, they are counted only once.

After more than 20 years of military dictatorship, the re-democratization of Brazil can be characterized as a period of great political effervescence, especially around the new Federal Constitution.

The 1988 Constitution, drafted by a Constituent Assembly, is the result of a vibrant participatory process that guaranteed a significant role to civil, political and social rights. The new Constitution is also characterized by concepts related to the implementation of participatory mechanisms in the three spheres of the Federation, initiating a new horizon of participatory practices in the country.

The period of re-democratization and the elaboration of the Constitution were marked by a broad participation of political parties, social movements, and civil society organizations, contributing to greater involvement and political inclusion in the delineation of democratic structures between the state and society.

The inclusion of participatory and deliberative formats in the 1988 Constitution made possible the development of so-called "democratic innovations." Since then, Brazil stands out among other countries for its high level of democratic experimentalism with regards to the development of democratic innovations.

Since the creation of the Participatory Budget in Porto Alegre in 1989, various forms of participation are becoming increasingly common in municipal, state and federal governments, consolidating democratic innovations as a constitutive aspect of Brazilian democracy.

With the expansion of the commercial use of the internet and digital government initiatives since the 2000s, one can observe the beginning of digital democratic innovations in the country. These have started to increase significantly from 2009. Digital innovations are equally present at the national level as well as at the local level, indicating that new technologies can contribute to broader participation and, possibly, impact democracy on a large scale.

Digital innovations are an important space for co-governance: in a significant part of cases, governments and citizens come together in the political process, regardless of who has developed or initiated the innovation. The government is, however, most responsible for digital democracy initiatives in the country, and is in charge of a significant part of digital participation initiatives. However, civil society organizations are increasingly presenting initiatives as they partner with governments, international and private organizations.

The most important democratic innovations in the country are; at the national level, the National Councils of Public Policies and the National Conferences of Public Policies; and at the local level, the Participatory Budget and the Municipal Councils of Public Policies. Digital democratic innovations expanded participation in the national legislative branch. Brazil has the first case of law developed through an online collaborative process (crowdsourcing), the so-called Civil Internet Framework.

Citizen Representation 65%

Deliberation 75%

Direct Voting 3%

E-Participation 32%

Means

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This graph indicates the percentage of each means of innovation adopted by
all cases in the country. Each case draws on one (primary) or two
(secondary) means of innovation; this graph reflects both. See our
concepts page for a description of all four means of innovation.

Accountability

Political Inclusion

Responsiveness

Rule of Law

Social Equality

Ends

?

This graph indicates the percentage of each end of innovation adopted by
all cases in the country. Each case draws on one or more ends of
innovation (up to five); this graph reflects all of them. See our concepts
page for a description of all five ends of innovation.